Chapter 79- the insanity of the toucans
Somewhere else in the dark, moonlit Tujica Forest, another group of toucans, about three-dozen of them or more, were carrying some of the other kids from Carla, Bia and Tiago's group through the dark trees, their cargo screaming and writhing like mad and demanding they be released. However, their desperate pleas were only received with snide replies from their captors. The cargo consisted of Acerola, Sirius, Einstein, Miles, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine and also Lillie and Gladion, Diantha and Tom's two chicks and the toucan chick captors' own cousins. Acerola furiously writhed in her toucan captors' talons as they continued to carry her by the wings, head and feet. The macaw and two good toucan chicks did the same in their captors' clutches as their captors carried them along, some by their talons upside down such as Gladion who kept yelping in pain from his still-healing casted wing as it struck various objects in the dark, such as branches.
"Let US GO!" screeched Acerola as she thrashed like a prey animal in an eagle's talons.
"Shut up, you little winged rat," retorted one of the toucan chicks who carried her by one of the wings.
"Release us, or we'll BECOME VIOLENT!" bellowed Sirius, his temper threatening to erupt but his captors refused to drop him as well.
"Oh, shut up, you bunch of little weaklings," crooned another toucan chick, a female. Screeches of demands and protests also erupted out of the beaks of Einstein, Miles, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine, Lillie and Gladion as well but to these chicks' dismay, their cries of desperation to be released fell on deaf ears as their toucan chick captors continued deeper into the dark jungle illuminated by the silvery shafts of moonlight. As the two toucan chicks carried Gladion upside down by the feet past a branch, his casted wing struck it, sending sharp pain shooting through his wing.
"YEEEOOW, CAREFUL!" shouted the son of Diantha and Tom, "I'VE A BROKEN WING, you KNOW!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, coward," replied one of his captors without a care for his injured wing and with that, he and his sister continued to carry Gladion along by his feet through the canopy, Gladion's upper body, head and wings continuously striking against more branches and other obstacles on the go and making Gladion burst more cries of pain from his beak. Behind Gladion, Adenine and Cytosine continued to be hauled by the feet, and Adenine's head struck against something thorny amongst one of the branches, making the oldest Catalina macaw chick cry in pain as the needles dug into the skin of his head and upper body. However, his carriers did not care about this either.
"Please PUT US DOOOOOWN!" cried Cytosine, his eyes spewing tears of terror and dripping upward and over his forehead rather than down his cheeks since he was upside down.
"Oh don't be such a scaredy-macaw," tittered one of his carriers spitefully. Nearby, Thymine, Guanine, Einstein, Miles and Lillie, some also carried by the feet and Miles by the throat, also continued to spit protests of desperation and terror and threats of pure rage at their toucan captors as they continued to haul them through the dark canopy.
"LET US GO!" shouted Miles as he was carried by the wings, tail and head feathers.
"Shut up, little wimp," crooned his captor who had his head feathers.
"Where are you TAKING US!?" shouted the terrified Einstein who was also carried by the feet, as he examined the surrounding dark jungle.
"You'll have to wait and see, smarty-feathers," crooned his captor. This added more oil to the flames of terror within the nine chicks and Acerola and they continued to desperately beg and plead with their captors to release them. But the only responses the ten kept receiving were mocking comments and 'Shut up name!' and so on.
Moments later, the group was deep in the jungle and the toucan chicks descended through the canopy and were now above the forest floor, heading for somewhere.
"LET US GO!" screeched Acerola again.
"Shut up, little Cicatriz bat," retorted one of her captors spitefully.
"Just WAIT till our parents and grandparents GET HOLD OF YOU!" screeched Adenine at the top of his voice. One of the nasty toucan chicks flew up to him and retorted with, "Just WAIT till our parents and grandparents GET HOLD OF YOU!" in a high-pitched voice to imitate Adenine's demand, much to his offended outrage. Then the toucan chick's orange and black beak formed a devilish smile.
"You sure like to irritate us, don't ya, rainbow-feathered eagle-face," he crooned.
"Over there," shouted the toucan chick at the front, the ringleader. His comrades followed and hauled Acerola and the other nine with her in their clutches in that direction. Acerola continued screeching and writhing, unaware that the group was now very close to the forest floor but then the next thing she knew, she was thrown hard by her captors into some sort of hole where she landed on her front on a rough, earthy surface. Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine followed shortly afterward and they landed in a shower of dirt, some of the beads of it flying into Acerola's face. Then a moment later, several more slams of feathers against earth sounded as Sirius, Einstein, Miles, Lillie and Gladion who screeched in pain as he landed on his casted wing, were tossed in after Acerola and the Catalina chicks. As the ten began to sort themselves out, their ears picked up the sound of something hard being moved against the earth. Acerola shot terrified glances at the earthy walls and saw that the group had been thrown into some sort of burrow. A pile of used sticks and twigs lay untidily at the back of the burrow, indicating a nest that had fallen into disuse. As all this came together for the macaw and good toucan chicks as well, Lillie shot a horrified look at the entrance to the burrow and saw a massive shadowy circle slide over the light of the circular entrance, like the moon sliding over the sun's disc during a solar eclipse. The scraping of the circle on the earth was accompanied by the sounds of struggling as the toucan chicks were pushing it across the entrance. Alarm tearing through her and also Acerola and Gladion, the three rushed over to the burrow entrance. Sirius, Einstein, Miles and the Catalina chicks also surged forward but by the time Acerola, Gladion and Lille were at the entrance, the entire hole was completely sealed save for a few slivers of moonlight shining through the gaps left by the seal, the eclipse complete.
As the auburn flying fox pup, the two chicks of Diantha and Tom and the others made contact with the circle, they realised that its surface was spherical, rough and hard. Then when Sirius further realised that this sphere was a small boulder, alarm and immense fear tore through them. Outside, the toucan chicks stood back, wicked and diabolical glares lacing their faces as they admired their work and as desperate cries of their victims erupted from behind the rock, accompanied by the sounds of knocking against its stony surface. The rock was the thing these toucan chicks had just pushed, altogether for it was heavy, over the entrance to trap Acerola and her group, including two of their own cousins, inside the burrow.
"LET US OUT!" screeched Lillie desperately. The others shouted and demanded the same. However, the toucan chicks, whose mischief had finally developed into a massive and wicked garden of thorny malice and villainy, just stood there and refused to budge.
"I'm afraid you're gonna have to spend the night in there, little wimps," crooned the ringleader spitefully.
"Spend the night?" chuckled one of his female comrades wickedly, "More like the rest of their LIVES!"
This was followed up by cackles from the ringleader and the other comrades, much to the immense distress of Acerola and the others with her in the sealed burrow. Then Gladion began to erupt with extreme fury.
"You're gonna PAY FOR THIS, YOU LOT!" he screeched, bashing the stone with his other wing, "LET US OUUUUT!"
The others also screeched the same thing and continued banging against the stone but it was no use. Their cries and desperate pleas to be let out all but fell on deaf ears. Then the toucan chicks began to leave, crow-like cackles escaping their beaks. Three of them remained behind to issue Acerola's group one last taunt as a parting gift.
"Don't let the thorns jab you in there," crooned one of them, a female.
"And certainly don't let the nest bugs and snakes bite," added the second one, a male. Then the third one, also a male, finished with, "Nighty night, you little worms! Sleep well!"
And with that, the three retreated after their comrades, leaving Acerola and the others to continue screeching and begging the toucan chicks in vain to be let out. However, their efforts slowed as they realised that there was no-one outside. Acerola then called together the other nine and together, they began to push against the boulder to shift it from the entrance. The burrow air was filled with "UNNNNNNNGGGGHHH! UNNNNGGGGGHHHH!"
However, the boulder did not budge an inch, much to the immense despair of the group. Einstein then gazed at the others.
"Guys," he said in a low voice, "By my calculations, this lump of stone is too heavy for the ten of us to move."
"It's gonna require at least triple our number to move this seal even an inch," put in Miles. As these words sank into the brains of Sirius, Acerola and the others' heads, the group gave up pushing against the boulder and backed away. Despair then began to boil within them as they examined the walls of the burrow. Then a minute later, sobs began to escape some of the kids' throats. Acerola retreated over to the nest material and sat down, immense tears of terror and distress oozing from her eyes while Sirius, Einstein and Miles sat down with Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine. Against the opposite wall, Gladion and Lillie also sat down together, tears of extreme despair, disbelief and fright falling heavily down their cheeks. These two chicks were gripped the hardest by disbelief, especially at the fact that their own cousins would do something like this to them and their friends. As this realisation dawned upon poor Gladion and Lillie, as well as the worry for the other chicks, Sandalwood and Ferdinand at the clutches of the rest of their countless cousins and also their equally deranged parents (who would be Gladion and his sisters' aunts and uncles) and what they might do to them which also welled within them, their heart fractured like a broken bone. Like the bone in Gladion's wing when Dalek threw Gladion hard into that tree at the fraudulent Paradise Sanctuary place. Sadly, the two chicks of Tom and Diantha sat close together and began to break down and sob hard with the macaw chicks and Acerola, their sobs filtering through the slivers of the gaps in the seal at the burrow's entrance.
Somewhere else
Another group of the toucans, among them Marco and Anastasia and some of the other adults, had touched down by a rushing stream with some more of the chicks from Carla, Bia and Tiago and company, among them Byron and Bellatrix, in their clutches. The other chicks from Carla and the others' group were Aldebaran, Altair, Sylvester and Bambi. Five of them were tied to a tree trunk with vines by Marco and company including the adult toucan who had threatened to slash Zebedee over the right side of his face and blind him only to be attacked by Aldebaran during the skirmish with Bia's group, and the stream the group was close to was the same stream Nigel had fallen into when Stella and Soren lured him into that predicament by stealing his tattered vest. Bellatrix and the others glared and gazed at their toucan captors from their binds with either terror of fury, or both, saturated faces as the toucans continued to examine them. Anastasia gazed at Bambi, Byron, Bellatrix and Sylvester.
"I'm thinking about giving these four ultra-rare chicks to a poacher again, folks," said she to the other adult toucans and their chicks, "What do you think?"
"Um… I think that idea's already been used, Anastasia," said one of the adult toucans, the one with the scratched face caused by Aldebaran, "We should consider something else entirely."
"No, I think giving those four rare birds to the poachers IS a good idea," said his mate, "Those poachers could do with some rare and should-be-extinct birds in their catch…"
Anastasia's beak formed a snide grin. She relished the idea very well and as she did this, she gazed back at the five tied-up chicks, some of them simmering in extreme fury and that fury was about to erupt. Bellatrix and Byron, however, were too timid to speak.
"Just WAIT until our PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS get a hold of you," snarled Altair furiously. Although he was terrified of the toucans, his immense fury was overriding his terror.
"They are SURELY GONNA be STEAMED!" added Sylvester.
"YEAH!" shouted Bambi in agreement. Then Sylvester corrected his previous statement.
"Wait, what am I saying, 'steamed!?" asked he, "More like go off like the stuff humans call DYNAMYTE!"
"Especially Mrs Jewel, Mr Blu and YOUR OWN PARENTS, Mr Rafael and Mrs Eva!" added Altair. Then a surge of courage ignited within Byron.
"They may even EVICT YOU FROM THE SANCTUARY!" added he loudly.
"But before that, TURN YOU LOT INTO A BEAT PULP!" added Bellatrix. In response, Anastasia glared at the five chicks.
"I'm afraid it'll be YOU lot that will be evicted, my dears, not us," she crooned wickedly.
"Don't you DARE refer to us as 'my dears', you big-nosed HAG!" spat Altair angrily.
"Yeah, Mrs Tremaine," put in Bellatrix, "Ugly BANSHEE!"
"VILE WITCH!" screeched Byron. These words from the three chicks hit a nerve inside Anastasia and set off a chain reaction resulting in her fury boiling dangerously inside her.
"What did you three JUST CALL ME!?" snarled the toucan wrathfully and with that, she began to let loose a scream of pure rage that carried and echoed through the dark, partially moonlit jungle, startling some nocturnal animals within earshot of the cry. The comrades of Marco and Anastasia, especially the chicks, recoiled in extreme fear.
"I think Anastasia's just CAUGHT FIRE!" cried one of the adult toucans. Anastasia shot him an outraged look, making him flinch.
"Don't just stand there," she bellowed, "Go and GET SOME MORE VINES AND prepare to TIE UP THESE CHICKS SO THAT WE COULD TAKE THEM AWAY TO SOME POACHERS!"
"Marco's not finished teaching Aldebaran a lesson over there," said another of the adult toucans, a point to Marco as he had one of the Verde brothers, Aldebaran, near the stream. Anastasia rolled her eyes impatiently but that impatience continued to boil dangerously by the heat of the insults that flew from the other five chicks, and those insults continued to fly.
"YOU certainly DO SCREAM like a BANSHEE, you foul WITCH!" screeched Bellatrix scornfully, her anger finally erupting through her fear of the toucans. The others soon joined in.
"You're EXTREMELY UGLY and VILE!" cried Byron, "Just like that IRACEBETH FROM THE FLYING FOX COLONY!"
"And I'm pretty sure Mr Augustus and his family could agree to that as WELL, you VILE SERPENT!" bellowed Bambi. Anastasia shot the chicks a volcanic look but before she could spew acid at them, the insults of the chicks continued to fly at her like spurts of venom.
"When Mrs Jewel and the others get HOLD OF YOU, they AREN'T HALF GONNA GO BALLISTIC!" screeched Altair. Then Bambi shouted the same threats at Anastasia regarding what his parents and grandparents, Spyro, Marella, Eragon and Andromeda would do to her and her comrades as well, before Bellatrix, Altair, Byron and Sylvester began to hurl a constant spray of venom at the toucans.
As the constant torrent of threats and insults continued to fly out of the five chicks' beaks and batter Anastasia and make her begin to sway in shock at the names the chicks were branding her, such as 'witch', 'snake', 'serpent' and 'hag', among other, more offensive names, the comrades looked on in extreme flabbergast.
"They're as bad as their parents," hissed one of the female adults disgustedly. Finally, the chicks' outraged words began to take their toll on poor Anastasia which ended with Bellatrix landing the final blow as a topper.
"And EXTREMELY barbaric, ugly, and downright DISGUSTING, JUST LIKE that vile SLIME-WORM COCKATOO NIGEL!" screeched she and with that, she added the MOST caustic insult as she could to the end of that sentence. That did it. Anastasia's insides churned and she began to feel very unstable. She only had enough energy to issue this command: "Get some vines, take those vile-beaked chicks from their binds and tie 'em up, and prepare to take them to some poachers…"
As she said this, Altair, his Roberto-like crest spiked out, added the finishing touch by heaving himself up in his binds and hurling a glob of saliva with enough force to send it flying right at Anastasia's eyes. As this act pushed Anastasia's tree trunk of pride past its critical angle, it finally toppled and Anastasia fell like one, forcing some of her comrades to catch her.
"She's going," said one of the toucans, "She's going!"
Bellatrix, Byron, Bambi, Altair and Sylvester continued shouting and screeching their caustic concoction of threats and insults at the toucans as well as watch Anastasia with no sympathy or remorse whatsoever as she was gently lowered to the ground by her comrades. Then one of the comrades turned to Marco and said, "Come on, we don't have all night, those stupid chicks are getting out of control in their behaviour…"
"Your mate has fainted!" called another.
"Just a minute!" snapped Marco as he held Aldebaran in one talon. When the sight of Aldebaran was picked up by the eyes of Bellatrix and the other four, their rage turned to horror.
"ALDEBARAN!" cried Bellatrix. Altair also shuddered as he gazed at his brother as he writhed in Marco's talon. Then Marco hopped from the bank and onto a rock by the surface of the water, the chick furiously writhing in his talon.
As he held the struggling great green/scarlet macaw chick over the rippling water surface, Marco began to taunt him.
"Would you like a little bath before we take you away with your five lil' friends, lil' tyke?" asked he meanly and with that, he dipped his wing in the water and sent some small droplets flying at Aldebaran's face. Aldebaran writhed and struggled in the toucan's talon as the small dots of water flew at his face, whimpers of fear escaping his beak. He then eyed Marco.
"What are you gonna do!?" asked he timidly and angrily at the same time.
"I'm gonna wash your dirty little feathers clean for attackin' one of my friends over there earlier," replied Marco casually, a nod to the toucan Aldebaran had attacked. At the tree trunk, Bellatrix and the other four began to struggle but the other toucans yelled at them to stop moving and to shut up.
"L-l-look, h-h-he was threatening Uncle Zebedee…" protested Aldebaran timidly but Marco pulled him close to his face.
"Well, that's still NO excuse for attackin' your elders like that, isn't it?" he crooned slightly mockingly.
"No excuse!?" spat Aldebaran in retort, "H-h-he was g-g-gonna slash him over the right side of his face a-a-and blind him…" Marco hissed in bitter hatred as the chick said this, "How c-c-can he d-d-deal with g-g-g-going blind altogether a-a-after he had already sacrificed s-s-sight in his left eye to save Mr Sebastian and h-h-his sisters…"
"Oh, you mean those cute lil' three Cicatriz bats who are the proud parents of those three little bat puppies, eh?" crooned Marco mockingly and with indifference to the seriousness of the subject. As he spoke, Aldebaran opened his beak and let loose an ear-piercing screech Marco slammed him against the dirt of the bank, cutting off his cry.
"Er, I wouldn't scream and shout if I were you," said the nasty toucan, his foot on the poor chick, "There could be night-time predators prowling around looking for a meal in the form of a tasty bird, and I don't want any of us becoming THAT!"
He tittered and lifted Aldebaran back into the air and over the water once again. However, Aldebaran's scream, despite it being short, had carried and had reached a certain hollow.
In the tree in which that hollow resided, two toucans were enjoying the moonlight. One of them had an orange and black-tipped beak and the other had a lime green beak with a magenta tip.
"Oooh, it sure is a beautiful night, eh, Rafael?" said the lime green and magenta beaked toucan, obviously Eva, who was Marco, and also Diantha's mother, as she admired the star-0studded sky and the moon that bathed the upper levels of the jungle in its silver light.
"It sure is my sweet mango," said Rafael lovingly, "It seems that Gylfie and Aurum have enjoyed this romantic night as well."
Eva smiled and leaned onto her toco mate's shoulder. However, her ears picked up the sounds of a short scream, making her raise her head and gaze into the distance.
"What in the world?" she whsipered.
"What is it, my sweet guava?" asked Rafael. Eva, worry taking her over, gazed at her toco mate with dread.